It felt as if the ground was swept away beneath my feet!

The wind is roaring in the trees and the night sky is pitch black covered with thick clouds. This is a night when the easily scared shouldn’t walk alone by the bog or by the creek as it showed today. All that’s missing is the howling by wolves and it would be a perfect horror movie night. Still it’s not even 5 pm yet 🙂

I drove by the super market as I always do on Fridays after work, like all autumns and winters I bought fire logs (or heat logs as they tend to call them now days) and something nice to eat. But I also finally bought a new bird feeder, the birds have pecked apart the walls in the old one so the seeds just fall out as soon as I pour them in it. It’s quite nice the new feeder and I’ll show You a photo of it tomorrow.

Lots of old roads no one use any more.

I was curious about how it looked down the creek so we went down there as soon as I came home. The water level has actually sunken some despite all the rain we’ve had lately. So we could walk our usual route without having to walk in to wild hog territory. Bertil followed us like always but wasn’t happy at all about going down to the creek. We passed the place the wild hogs have dug up searching for tasty roots and was just walking on the road where the creek flows under the ground when it felt like the ground was swept away beneath my feet.

It actually was swept away beneath my feet and I fell down in to a sinkhole 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was lucky though because my feet hit some solid ground, had I fallen down just a few centimeters (an inch or two) I would have missed the solid ground and fallen down into the creek 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wouldn’t have drowned though because I could see that I would have been able to stand up within a meter (much the same in yards) or so and been able to walk up from the creek. Would have been nasty cold though and smelled like bog water 🙂

I managed to find a smaller tree trunk that I placed in the hole and then I walked home and warned one of the land owners in that area about the hole. Tomorrow morning there will be hunters there and it’s not good PR for the area if they and their cars falls down into creeks through a hole 🙂 🙂 🙂

No warning at all, the ground just disappeared.

The water was flowing rapidly just behind where my feet landed.

It’s time for that pot of tea again and something to eat as well. Strangely enough I didn’t buy anything special to eat when I was at the super market but I did buy a Cedar that I’ll have as a Yule tree this year 🙂

New kittens at the farm next door. I missed the chance to photograph them all.

I would have brought home the one in the previous photo if I didn’t have two cats already.

Have a great day!

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24 thoughts on “It felt as if the ground was swept away beneath my feet!”

Christer,
In Florida yesterday or the day before, a sinkhole ate a whole house. The sinkhole, like yours, suddenly appeared and the house fell into it. That is not as rare as you’d think in Florida.

That kitten is adorable. I also have two and wouldn’t want another. I adopted Fern and Maddie from the shelter when they were 5. I had always had kittens and thought it a good idea to give a home to older cats.

I don’t have wooden feeders anymore. The squirrels chewed them to get at the seeds. Mine are metal now.

I have read about Florida and the sinkholes and how common they are there. We’ve had a few ones and most are in the size of the one I fell down in.

It is adorable and the one that didn’t fear me at all. Most of them behave like feral ones since their mothers usually are. This one had a really nice mother too though. I once got an older cat and she was truly wonderful. If I had bought pizza she could get furious if I didn’t give her some, she even bit me once when I tried to stop her eating from my piece 🙂 🙂 🙂

No risk of squirrels chewing away my feeders, they don’t dare comming this far from the forest.

Wow, that must have been a cold shock,sinking into the ground..a little scary too! Be careful out there! Thank goodness Bertil didn’t fall through.
You already have your Jul Tree! We will wait till after Thanksgiving to get ours, (November 28th).
it is very hard to resist a little kitten, though I have a feeling Bertil might have something to say about it.

I got a bit surprised 🙂 But it all happened so fast that I never got the chance of getting scared 🙂 Bertil was never close enough but both Nova and Sune were leashed (Sune just can’t stop from jumping in to water 🙂 ) so if I had continued down so would they.

This is a potted cypress so I thought it best to buy it now when it still looked good. It will stay outdoors until frost is more frequent. I would never have bought a tree that isn’t potted this early in the year 🙂

Yes it is almost impossible to resist a kitten, especially this nice and cute one 🙂 I’m not sure how Bertil would react but I think Teo would just have said high and welcome to it, he’s happy as long as he get his food 🙂

Hi Christer,
The creek undercut the bank? Wow. Good thing your foot landed on solid ground. It would have been a cold walk home.
When I was a kid I fell into the brook one late fall day. It was not a pleasant walk home in cold weather and wet, algae covered clothes. I still remember how wonderful it felt after I showered and got into clean, warm clothes. 🙂

Cute kittens. You should take that one home. You have 4 dogs, you need to catch up in the kitten department. 🙂

I’m contemplating adopting a second dog. Something about the same size as Rocky and maybe a bit younger. I think about it some more for now, though. Maybe I should get a kitten, too. 😀

Yes it had but I don’t think the beavers rising the water level had anything to do with it, this happened closer to the other end. I’m so glad I hit that more solid ground 🙂 🙂

Haven’t we all fallen in to ditches, creeks or ponds/ lakes in our youth 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think two cats is just enough thank You 🙂 but it sure is cute and I know I would have gotten it if I had asked 🙂

It is worth an extra thought if You want a new dog, but as long as they meet on neutral ground and the dog sort of just follows You home it usually works fine 🙂 I can send You a couple of kittens if You like 🙂

Well, it happened to you! The very thing I have been afraid of since I began reading your blog ages ago! Isn’t there a way home on your walks that you don’t have to pass over an area like that. I am not certain where or why I began having a fear of falling though the earth..but it’s been a fear since childhood. Nightmares..etc. What if you have been swept under the earth..I don’t understand how you could have stood up and walked out! BE CAREFUL!!
I remember a long time ago when you talked of the bog…it scared me then and it scares me now. Not much else I can think of that really frightens me.
Yep, lots of those in Florida where entire area’s fall in, huge tree’s, everything.
A man recently fell right through his bedroom floor into a sinkhole and they never found him. He was in bed, for pete’s sake!! Awful!
Find another route..please!

This wasn’t by the bog though, it happened on a road by the fields. The creek is just 1,5 yards wice there and there should be one of those concrete tubes all the way beneath the road. So my guess is that the tube must have been broken for some reason and that it was a part of it that I landed on 🙂 I’m very aware that there are deep holöes in the bog and that’s why I seldom walk out on it when it isn’t frozen. Those hoiles in the bog are usually covered by tree roots and grass is growing on those roots but the ground is usually a bit wobbly long before there’s a risk of falling down 🙂

Florida does have a lot of underground rivers and lakes so I know that can happen in the most odd (for us that is) places. It does happen quite often down in South America too. Here not so often though and our holes are usually rather small thankfully. I’ll soon be walking there again as soon as they have fixed the road, after all they need to repaire it since thet often drive their tractors on it 🙂

p.s. I meant to add that I have NO idea why those cushions are so expensive. That’s why they get so old and battered is because I hate spending money on them. I got these, 4 of them, for half what I paid for the first ones I’ve had for years now. It’s the blasted shipping that I hate paying. I could have bought two more almost, for the price I paid for shipping!

The shipping is usually not that bad over here, if we are prepared to wait a few days we can often get the shipping for free. I have ordered a few books and I chose the option “shipping free” and instead of getting those books within two days I have to wait a week instead. I don’t mind that 🙂

I am so glad you were not hurt when the ground gave way. There have been so many events in Florida with homes being swallowed up and in sections of Philadelphia, entire sections of city blocks have fallen into sink holes too, all from water running under the ground. Maybe you should take an emergency device with you on your walks, something with a light or that makes a noise? I often hear of things like that happening in the bogs in Ireland also. Just be careful. We do not want to lose you. I am intrigued by the red door seen through the trees in one of the photos. To what does it lead? I am glad you got a tree for Christmas and I am sure it smells beautiful. Living in an apartment complex, we are not permitted to have live trees and I truly miss the beautiful aroma a live tree emits. The supermarkets often sell Norkolf Island pines which are maybe 1.5 to 2 feet tall and I may get one of them. Last year I bought Hallkmark’s Charlie Brown Christmas tree, a sorry looking thing (artificial) with one glass ornament! I am watching the many documentaries about the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy since the 50th anniversary of his death is coming up. I recall that day as if it were yesterday. Time to get some dinner. Be well and be safe.

My back is a bit sour but that’s it thankfully.But then again I am in the middle of a rheumatic attack so it might just be that instead 🙂
I have read about the sinkholes in the US and that is frioghtening! The few we have are usually quite small but that doesn’t help much if it would be a child falling down into one.

This wasn’t even close to the big but out on the fields. I think one of those concrete tubes they have placed there so the water can flow through it must be broken and I think I had the luck of landing on that part of the tube still there. So I don’t think they can blame the beavers either, on the contrary because the beavers have stopped the water flow that much that it now will be easier to fix the road again 🙂

That’s not a door, it’s tha top part of a hunting tower. But it does look very much like the doors on the barns in the area.

This is just a small cypress (even if they always call them Junipers for some reason) it did smell nice but not especially strong I’m afraid. The spruce I had the previous years are now retired and grows in my garden 🙂 I’m hoping this one will survive all through winter so I can plant it outside too. I’m not sure it’s hardy enough though. Over here it’s almost always some kind of spruce we’re having as Yule tree, pines and junipers are sold but only a few buy those. I guess it’s easier to decorate spruces.

Happy Friday Christer –
What an awful experience to have the earth disappear beneath your feet. Thank goodness that you didn’t get hurt and your camera didn’t land in the creek. The soil looks only a few inches thick in that photo of the hole. They really should close the road until an engineer or the farmer can evaluate how extensive the soil erosion is. Usually the damage is not just in one small area. Do you think the water rose so high earlier in the week that it just washed away the deeper soil. Bertil must have wondered what the heck you were doing when the ground caved in. He probably had a good kitty laugh at your agility skills – cats always think they are so above us humans, It might be fun to hide off the side of the road tomorrow & yourself in the bushes with your camera ready to catch a photo of a hunter or two falling all the way into the creek. I guess I am not too sympathetic to Bambi killers, especially one who are too lazy to get up as early as the deer do.
The kitten is adorable. I have gone from 4 cats to one 22 year old cat who is quite lonely without her companions, so I am actually ready to adopt one or two. The kitten with the mother looks very similar to my mancat Cosmo. He was a gorgeous tabby with the same coloring & a very smart cat. If I asked him a question he would respond by loudly meowing “yes” and look away from you for “no”. If I were in Sweden, I would adopt a two of those kittens in a heartbeat, In reality, I keep looking through the car adoption ads online for an older bonded pair of male cats, I feel so badly for the older cats that have been displaced from the only home they have ever known.& find themselves in a large shelter which is so stressful. Usually, they are there because the owner has died and they have no one to care for the cats. I looked into a service the Humane Society here offers where, if you leave a $500 donation to them in your will, they promise to quickly find a good home for any pets you leave behind. They even try to get multiple animals to be adopted by one person so the animals do not have to be separated.
I laughed when you said you had a cat that like to eat pizza. My Toby has always like spicy food and whenever I order a pizza I have to add pepperoni because she loves it so much. Pepperoni gives me terrible heartburn, so I save the extra slices for Toby in the freezer for an occasional treat. She has a tough stomach for an old cat and has always demanded a bite of whatever I have for dinner. If I don’t give her a taste fast enough, I get a paw tapping me on the arm. She will take a bite of things I know she doesn’t enjoy, like spaghetti, so I think it is mostly a way for her to show that she is my equal (her idea).
Our dreary rainy weather has arrived so it has been dark with wind & rain all week. I am going to do some baking this weekend & cheer myself up with some oatmeal raisin cookies. Tonight Haven is on so at least there is something to watch. I hope you have enjoy your weekend and that the animals keep out of trouble & behave themselves.,And remember – Watch out for those man-eating sink holes!

I never had the chance of getting scared to be honest, it all happened to fast 🙂 It turns out that the concrete tubes that are placed there really is huge ones but cut in half. So at least one of them must have slid some to make this happen. The rest of the road seems safe enough to walk on if one needs to. I know this much though, that it isn’t the beavers fault. It’s most likely a draught all summer long followed by heavy rains. The part that looks ok is actually where the beavers have stopped the water from flowing 🙂 I also learned this morning that the hunters aren’t allowed to hunt in that part of the forest, it is supposed to be a sort of free zone/nursery for the wild life. So they are in no hurry when it comes to repairing the road again.

Cats are like they are 🙂 🙂 🙂 but are You sure a 22 year old cat really wants company? She’s like 100 human years old 🙂 but perhaps a new friend woul be fun for her. Hector and Orvar did sort of become more alert but then again, they are dogs 🙂

I don’t think they show Haven on any channel over here, haven’t heard about it. But it looks like something I would like to see so I can only hope that channel Six buys it eventually 🙂